Hiram Rhodes Revels
Born: September 27, 1827 in Fayetteville, North Carolina
Died: January 16, 1901 in Aberdeen, Mississippi
United States Senator, 1870–1871
Republican from Mississippi
- In 1870 Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress and the first African American U.S. Senator.
- Revels was elected by the state legislature of Mississippi to complete one of the two Senate seats that had been vacant since that state's 1861 secession from the United States.
- Revels is believed to be of African and Native American ancestry and was born to parents who were free in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he received basic education. To advance his education, Revels moved North to Indiana, Ohio and Illinois where he trained as a minister and educator.
- During the Civil War he helped organize Maryland's first two Black regiments for the U.S. Army.
- Revels distinguished himself as a religious leader and educator among Black Methodists.
- After leaving the Senate, Revels served as the first president of Mississippi's Alcorn University (later Alcorn State University). Alcorn is the oldest public historically Black (HBCU) land-grant institution in the United States.
- Revels died of a paralytic stroke in Aberdeen, Mississippi, on January 16, 1901, while attending a religious conference. He was 73 years old.
Hiram Rhodes Revel
1899
Print Collection
Photographs and Prints Division
NYPL Digital Collections: Hon. Hiram R. Revels Senator from Mississippi.